Unknown Number
by ForbiddenDreams13
Summary: Touko ponders over N's nickname and what it means to her.


**Hello! Welcome to my first ever Pokemon fanfic.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

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Although x is more commonplace when it comes to solving algebraic equations, it's not the only one that is used. On occasion, she'd seen a, h (the latter mostly in higher math), c, d, and even s, but none so highly used as x. However, this hasn't stopped the mathematically daring from breaking free from that school of thought and plunging forward through the use of other letters, the letter n being their favorite. Touko smiled. N is her favorite letter too. She glanced at him, hunched over on his desk, face buried in a notebook scribbling down formulas running the gamut from simple polynomials all the way to differential equations.

N. An unknown number. A variable to be solved, a mathematical enigma. She knew that N was just a nickname, but it fit him far more than his real name. Ever since they first met he'd always been a mystery to her, an unsolvable puzzle. Every time she thought she had a grasp on him, he'd shift the formula around, going from squares to square roots, switching from f(x) to f '(x) and sometimes throwing in the undefined monkey wrench of division by zero. Like the variable, his value depended on the problem, and most times the equation to figure him out went sailing over Touko's head. Not that she minded. Let him be mysterious and ever-changing, it was one of the things she liked best about him after all.

Touko walked up to N, wrapping her arms around his chest and laying her chin on his head.

"Hey you." She murmured.

N leaned back into her embrace, "Hello."

"What'cha working on?"

"Nothing much," he replied, laying the pencil down, "just trying to figure out why these formulas keep coming out as wrong."

Peering down at the paper, Touko saw a graph containing two lines: the main line which stretched upward on the graph and a tangent that also ran upward. Underneath were a couple equations and half of a formula crossed out. Touko noticed that for all three, the answer came out as a number divided by zero. Undefined.

"Are you sure your answers are wrong? Lines can be undefined you know."

N shook his head, "When speaking just of lines, the only time it would be undefined is if it is vertical. What I'm working on is average rate of change, the derivative and slope of this tangent line in hopes that I can better figure out the original. It shouldn't be undefined."

"Why not?" Touko asked.

"Well, it…" N trailed off, picking up the pencil, "it just doesn't make sense. Because the variable I'm trying to find exists, so its value _should _exist." He began drumming his fingers on the notebook, "So why can't I find the value of anything?"

Touko clucked her tongue and ran her gaze over the left side of the crossed-out equations. She frowned. That didn't make sense. Instead of the usual f(x), N had written down f(T). Why l? Furthermore, why capitalize it? What was he trying to find? N seemed to sense Touko's confusion because he put down the pencil, reached up and played with a lock of her hair and said, "Yeah, it's difficult. I've never had anything stump me like this before. Did you want to take a crack at it?"

She held her hands up in a warding-off gesture, "No thank you. I gave at the office."

"Huh?"

"It's a saying. It's often used in situations to get out of donating to charities by saying someone's given enough somewhere else."

"What does that have to do with this?"

Giggling, Touko wrapped him up in a hug once more, pecking him on the cheek, "Because I donated enough time and effort to math when I was younger, my dear. I'm not giving it any more time now."

"Time isn't money." N replied.

"Oh, darling yes it is."

Shaking his head, N chuckled, "Touko, Touko, Touko, I don't think I'll ever be able to figure you out."

She smirked and quirked an eyebrow, "Is that what you're trying to do now?"

"W-What? No, I-I…I'm just…" N stammered. Touko smiled and ruffled his hair before turning on her heel and walking out of the room. Funny, to think he figured that you could boil someone down to numbers and formulas. It seemed she was just as much a mystery to him as he was to her. He was unknown and she was undefined. She threw his mathematical approach clear off the rails and he confused her no end.

But she wouldn't have it any other way.

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**I apologize if the math language made things seem dry, of it was just dry over all. I haven't written anything in ages, and this was my way of slipping back into the habit. At any rate, drop me a line and let me know how I did!**


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